Nice to hear a about Reading for once, having grown up there. Once upon a time, every kid who grew up there could tell you that "Sumer is Icumen In" is the oldest surviving piece of written music in England.

Apparently a bunch of Morris Dancers dance to it at dawn in the Abbey ruins on May morning, but I never managed to get up in time to see this. I suspect it's actually been fairly recently adopted by folkies (as opposed to early music buffs) on account of its antiquity and traditional feel. Seeing as it was written less than 600 years after England became a Christian country (and features in "The Wicker Man") I reckon it's well on its way to becoming a "survival from pagan times" ;-)

King B, quite right, the Abbey Ruins and the Forbury Gardens next to them are one of the few peaceful and pleasant places left in Reading.. going off on a tangent here, there's a local legend end about the statue of the lion in the Forbury- the legs are wrong (it's walking with both left legs forward), and when the sculptor was informed of this error, hanged himself in shame from the lion's mouth. I've no idea where this story came from, it all sounds a little far-fetched,

There's also a statue of of Queen Victoria outside the town hall which directly facing the railway station, apparently because she came to visit and was so mightily unimpressed by the place that she turned straight back. That I can believe.